1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vending machine. More particularly, it relates to a vending mechanism of a vending machine by which different kinds of articles for sale, held in the vending machine can be simultaneously obtained from the same vending machine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A vending machine generally holds packets of cigarettes, containers of coffee, drinks, snacks, and books, so consumers can obtain them by putting coins into it. FIG. 1 depicts a conventional vending machine. As shown in FIG. 1, the vending machine includes a casing 1, a door 2 that is hinged on one side of the front of casing 1 for opening and closing casing 2, a doorknob 3 used when opening and closing door 2, a coin slot 4 into which coins for a user-selected article are put, and a paper money slot 5 into which paper money is put.
The vending machine also includes an article selection panel 5 with a plurality of keys used to choose a user-desired article, a cup dispenser 6 providing a user with a cup of coffee or other tea, a can dispenser 7 providing a user with a can of cooling beverages, a lottery ticket dispenser 8, a coin reject slot 9 through which small change is output, and a display 10 on which various messages are displayed during operation.
Article selection panel 50 consists of can selection buttons 51, beverage selection buttons 52, and a lottery ticket button 53.
As shown in FIG. 2, inside of the vending machine are provided a cup column 11 holding a plurality of paper cups; a coin mechanism 54 sensing defect of the coins, put into the vending machine, an amount of input money, and an amount of change to be given back to users; a paper money mechanism 56 determining if paper money put into the vending machine is defective and sensing its amount; a lottery ticket dispensing unit 74; and a coin container 12 holding coins put into the vending machine through coin slot 4.
Referring to FIG. 3, the interior of the vending machine also has a water container 13; coffee powder receptacles 14 storing coffee powder, sugar, cream, etc.; a hot water supply vessel 15 holding hot water made by heating water from water container 13; raw material receptacles 16 storing raw materials for making great tea, black tea, hot chocolate, etc.; a mixing part 17 mixing raw materials from coffee powder receptacles 14 or raw material receptacles 16 with the hot water from hot water supply vessel 15 and supplying a mixture of them to cup dispenser 6; a bucket 18 collecting water used for cleaning or created by defrosting the vending machine; a cooling unit 19 producing cold to cans; and a rack 20 holding cans of cooling beverages.
The operation of the conventional vending machine is now described referring to FIGS. 1 to 3.
When a user puts a given amount of coins or paper money into the coffee vending machine through coin slot 4 or paper money slot 5, coin mechanism 54 or paper money mechanism 56 senses the amount of the input coins or paper money. If the amount of the input money is more than the price of each article for sale held in the vending machine, display 10 displays a message telling that the articles can be vended.
If a consumer selects a can of cool beverage by using can selection buttons 51 of article selection panel 50, the selected can is output to can dispenser 7 from rack 20 and dispensed to him or her.
If he or she selects a coffee or green tea by using beverage selection buttons 52 provided to article selection panel 50, materials for making the coffee or green tea, are supplied from coffee powder receptacles 14 or raw material receptacles 16 to mixing part 17 and mixed with hot water from hot water supply vessel 15 by mixing part 17. A mixture of them is provided to cup dispenser 6 and dispensed to him or her.
When the user manipulates lottery ticket button 53 on article selection panel 50, a lottery ticket is output to lottery ticket dispenser 8 from lottery ticket output part 74. The time it takes to dispense a cup of coffee or tea, a lottery ticket, and a can of cool beverage are respectively about 12 sec, 3 to 4 sec, and 100 to 125 msec. However, in case a user tries to obtain several articles (e.g. coffee, cans of cool beverages or lottery tickets) from the same vending machine, he or she has to select the next one after completion of dispensing him or her with the first article, which takes a long time and is inconvenient to use.